All in the Bat-Family
by Alexandra GC
Summary: Here's the full list of characters: Bruce W./Batman, Alfred P., Dick G./Nightwing, Jason T./Red Hood, Tim D./Red Robin, Damian W./Robin, Stephanie B./Spoiler, Cassandra C./Black Bat, Barbara G./Batgirl, Joker, Harley Quinn, Selina K./Catwoman, Clark K./Superman, Lois L. Diana P./Wonder Woman, Hal J./Green Lantern, Roy H./Arsenal, Wally W./Kid-Flash. I did create one character.


_(In this story, the Waynes have a Scottish Terrier named MacBeth, a Maine Coon names Franz and an American Shorthair names Fredric in addition to the cannon pets Titus the Great Dane and Bat Cow)_

Jingle Bells, Damian Smells

 _Jason you can't call it that._

 _Why not Dick?_

 _If anything you smell._

 _Shut up Tim..._

"Ow! Damian stop that!" Came a loud voice. Charlotte Thomas was lying on a mat, with a small, little boy standing over her looking quite pleased with himself.

"That's the third time he's beaten you Lottie, just let it go." Said Dick Grayson who was stretching nearby.

"I know, Dick, I can count." Lottie said as she stood up groaning. She glared down at the ten year old next to her. "Fine, you win… for now."

"I figured, my years of training with The League of Assassins do account for something." Damian Wayne said in a very condescending voice.

"Damian, its hard for you to be condescending when you have to look up to see the person's face." Lottie said.

Damian scowled at her and walked off toward the pull up bar.

Dick stood up and walked over to Lottie and looked at Damian.

"Well, he's his father's son, you don't need a DNA test to figure that out." He said.

"I think what we should be testing is whether or not that kid is the Anti-Christ." Lottie retorted.

Dick chuckled, "I can see the resemblance, they even share the same name." and walked over to the pommel horse and mounted it.

"Uhhgg, Imma gonna go see what Tim is up to." She announced as she left to room. She walked upstairs to the main floor and heard the unmistakable sound of video games from the game room.

"Timmy boy, you in here?" she said poking her head in the room.

"Yup, right here." Tim Drake said. Next to him sat Cassandra Cain, who appeared to be beating him badly in what ever game they were playing. Titus was laying behind them, sprawled out on the carpet.

"I see I'm not the only one suffering defeat in this family." Lottie said just as Cass's character killed Tim's. "Can I go next?" she asked.

"Sure, but Cass is pretty good." Tim said, abandoning the squashed bean bag chair he had been sitting in.

"I know I'm going to lose, I just got destroyed downstairs by the little Devil in real fighting, I have no doubt Cass is going to kill me."

"Well that's good because you're already dead." Cass said five seconds later.

"How the Hell'd you do that?" Tim said.

"Like you said, I'm pretty good." She said laughing.

"Ahem, lunch is served." Said the butler, Alfred Pennyworth, from the doorway.

"Oh thank you!" Tim said running to the kitchen.

"Where's Steph?" Lottie asked Cass.

"I dunno? I think she's baking us cookies." Cass replied.

"Oh dear God I hope not, her last batch nearly killed me." said Jason Todd walking up behind them.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly." Lottie said as Jason walked past her. "Pshew! The cookies aren't they only thing that might kill me, you ever heard of a shower Jason?"

"I'll shower when Gotham is crime free."Jason said in his deep, gruff voice.

"That's right Jason, set realistic goals." Cass said sarcastically.

Everyone got their plates and lined up to put together the sandwich of their choosing and then sat down at the table to eat.

"Where's father?" Damian asked once he had finished his sandwich.

"Master Wayne had some business to attend to, he said that he shall return before dawn." Alfred responded.

All of a sudden, the loud blaring noise of the smoke detector rang out, scaring everyone half to death, except Damian, who simply lifted his little head to see what was happening. MacBeth and Titus started barking hysterically. Fredric, who had been sleeping peacefully on the bar, jumped four feet in the air before landing and darting off past Franz, who had his back arched, fur on end, and was hissing at everyone.

"Well I think Stephanie's cookies are done." Tim said. Sure enough, Stephanie came running in to take the presumably burnt cookies out of the smoking oven.

"Alfred, could you please…Oh, thank you." Stephanie said as Alfred turned off the smoke detector.

"What's the status doctor, can they be saved?" Dick said standing up from his chair to look over the counter at the cookies.

"I dunno, their too hot for me to test, although I think they'll be ok if we maybe crumble them into ice cream or something." Stephanie said fanning the cookies vigorously with an oven mitt.

"Well they don't smell that bad, now that the smoke is clearing." Lottie said.

"We'll just have to wait." Stephanie said with a sigh.

"You're nineteen years old and you still can't bake with out setting off some sort of alarm…" Damian sneered.

"You're ten and you still have baby teeth…" Stephanie snapped back.

"That's not completely odd, a lot of people don't lose all of their baby teeth until they are adults, Jason still has two baby molars and he's twenty." Damian said in a very matter of fact tone. Jason turned red and glared at Damian.

"Yeah but most people can stop singing "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" by the time their five, you could have sang it last year." Jason said. Damian scowled at his brother.

"I think I'm finished Alfred, I'll retire to my room now." He said marching upstairs.

"He's looks like an angry kitten." Dick said trying to stiffen his laughing.

"A very angry kitten, that could kill you." Lottie added.

"Maybe one of us should get him a sense of humor for Christmas this year." Jason said.

"Naw, he wouldn't know what to do with it." Stephanie said, still standing by the oven. "I think the cookies are cool enough for me to try one, wish me luck." She said as she took a small bite out of one of the cookies which she immediately let fall out of her mouth and into the sink.

"No good?" Tim asked.

"No they're fine, just still too hot." She said hastily pouring herself a glass of milk.

"So whatcha gonna do with all that leftover cookie dough?" Dick said eyeing the large bowl of dough.

"I suppose its no use baking another batch, you guys can knock yourselves out." Stephanie said placing the bowl on the bar in front of Dick who immediately began eating the chocolate chip dough.

"Ahh yes, and here we see the wild Grayson, or " _Dickus annoyingus"_ eating his favorite meal, unbaked cookie dough. We must tread carefully, for the Grayson becomes very hostile when eating. Look at how he devours the delicious looking cookie dough with no regard for.."

"Ok I get it Jason!" Dick said rolling his eyes and handing the bowl over to him, but not before taking a huge bite.

"I dunno why they even bother putting salmonella warnings on cookie dough packages anymore, I mean who even—ITS SNOWING!" Lottie shouted, startling everyone half to death and causing Jason to almost choke on the cookie dough. Sure enough, outside little flecks of snow were falling from the thick, pale gray sky outside.

"Oh wow would'ya look at that." Jason said coughing up bits of dough.

"Lighten up Jay-bird, come on lets go outside and play!" Tim said as he and everyone else ran out the room.

"Are you guys four year olds? We live in New Jersey and it's December, of course there's snow!" Jason called out. He stood there a few minutes, looking out at the snow as it began to fall faster and cover the ground. He looked down at the already half eaten bowl of cookie dough and sighed as he placed it down and put a note on it saying,

This is Jason's DO NOT touch if you want to live!

He then ran out to join the others who were already engaged in a lethal looking snowball fight with the small amount of snow that was on the ground. Titus was racing back and forth, trying to catch to snowballs in his gigantic mouth.

Outside the snow was only about an inch thick at that point, but at the rate it was falling it looked to pile up to at least a foot in the next three hours. The wind turned their noses rosy red as they continued to engage in a powdery battle.

"Should we see if Satan's spawn wants to join us?" Cass said as she hurled a snowball at Stephanie, who narrowly missed only to get hit by Dick.

"He probably won't want to but its worth a shot I guess." Tim said dodging a hit from Lottie.

"I'll ask him, I was gonna go get my scarf anyway." Lottie said trudging back towards the house.

Since Damian's room was the first kid's room you see when you get to the top of the staircase, Lottie figured she'd ask him first and then get her scarf from her room, which was right next to his. She knocked on the door and waited.

"What do you want?" asked a sour voice.

"D'you wanna come outside and play in the snow with us?" Lottie asked.

"Please, I have better ways to use my time."

"Like what? Brooding about impending puberty?"

A few minutes later the door opened and Damian walked out without even looking at Lotte.

"Fine… you win… I guess that makes us even." He grumbled heading down the stairs. Lottie ran into her room, grabbed her scarf and rejoined the others outside.

"Hey little brother! Come to join the fun?" Stephanie called out.

"I'm not your little brother, and I'm not joining in on your petty child's play." Damian said sitting down on a snow covered chair on the veranda.

"Fine, suit yourself, but you're gonna get cold just sitting there." Stephanie responded.

"No I won't, I was trained by my grandfather to be immune to the cold." He finished.

"Oh course you were." Jason muttered under his breath.

"You know what we should do tonight?" Cass said whilst making more snowballs.

"Go streaking through Gotham hoping dad doesn't catch us?" Jason said with a smirk.

"Yeah, you can do that, but the rest of us should have a movie night. Maybe watch _A Christmas Carol_ since Christmas is in three days?" Cass suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Dick said.

"Only after we've all showered, Jason." Lottie added as Jason was about to stuff a snowball down her jacket.

"Only after we've all showered, Jason." He said in a mocking voice as he backed off.

"Yeah dude, I'm not about to sit next to you for an entire movie with you smelling like a Chinese sweatshop." Tim said.

"Ugghh _fine_!" Jason sighed.

"How long have we been out here?" Tim asked.

"Like, thirty minutes. You getting cold?" Dick responded.

"A bit, I'm gonna head in and get cleaned up." Tim said.

"I'll go with him." Damian said following Tim inside.

"Is that child capable of enjoying anything?" Lottie asked.

"Other than decapitation? I don't know." Came another female voice. Everyone turned around to see a bundled up Barbara Gordon standing by a snow draped statue with a luggage bag hanging from her shoulder. "Hey guys."

"Hey Babs!" Dick said going up to greet her. "Whatcha doing round this neck of the woods?"

Jason made an audible gagging noise as Dick and Barbara embraced.

"Your dad actually asked me to come up and spend Christmas with you guys since my dad's in Trenton trying to see if the GCPD could get new squad cars before the new year since our current ones are ancient." Barbara responded.

"Well come on inside, we're planning on watching _A Christmas Carol_ tonight if that's okay with you?" Dick said escorting her inside.

" _They don't call him Dick for nothing."_ Jason said following them inside.

"So, umm, what pajamas did you bring?" Dick asked blushing.

" _Oh my god, are you actually kidding, he's literally going to make me sick."_

"My Hufflepuff ones." Barbara said.

"You're a Hufflepuff? No way so am I! I'll wear my Hufflepuff pajamas as well, and you know what why don't we all wear our Hogwarts house pajamas? Ok guys?" Dick said looking back at Jason, Lottie, Stephanie and Cass.

"Alright Horny Potter." Jason said marching up the stairs.

It was around six o'clock by the time everyone was cleaned up and in their house pajamas. Barbara, Dick and Lottie were in Hufflepuff, Jason and Damian were in Slytherin, Tim was in Ravenclaw and Stephanie and Cass were in Gryffindor.

"I see we are all sporting our house pajamas tonight, shall I assume a Harry Potter marathon is on the horizon?" Alfred asked as he handed out buckets of popcorn, candy and soda to the group as they filed in the theatre.

"No, we're actually planning on watching _A Christmas Carol_ , this was just Dick's very stupid idea to impress Barbara." Jason said as he walked past Alfred.

"Very well then Master Todd. I took the liberty of bringing in an eighth beanbag chair for Miss Gordon as well." Alfred said as he walked out to get the movie ready.

Damian was sitting right in the center of the room, his food on his tray and staring intently at the blank screen waiting for the movie to start. Charles Dickens was one of the few things in life he liked. Dick and Barbara were sitting next to each other before Tim dropped down right between them and refused to move. Jason was sprawled out in the back, popcorn already all over him, sipping his soda, Fredric slinked up to him and started nuzzling his feet prompting Jason to pull him onto his lap, where he curled up. Cass was right behind Damian slowly putting popcorn in in the hood of his pajamas. Lottie was behind Dick doing the same thing. Tim noticed and almost gave it away due to a loud snorting laugh he let out. Stephanie was cuddled up in the corner opposite Jason doing something on her phone. The movie started and everyone went silent at Damian's order with the exception of Jason, who would comment on parts of the movie every now and then.

"Why is it that Victorian London is always shown to be so miserable? And why are all the non-main character chicks so butt-ass fugly?"

"Shouldn't the kid have died back when he was, like, a toddler or something?"

"There are millions of assholes in the world, why did the ghostly trio have to choose him?"

"Yeah Belle, he's busy working so he can afford for your unappreciative ass to live in a decent house."

"Are we sure Scrooge isn't just on an acid trip?"

"Scrooge's future wasn't that bad, I mean sure he dies and the kid dies, but everyone else seems dandy." He said at the end.

"Whatever, Imma gonna go to bed now." Cass yawned as she stood up and stretched.

"Bed? Its not even eight? There's food to be eaten, tales to be told, pets to dress up, presents to guess, I personally have a strong urge to see if the pond is frozen and go ice skating." Jason said.

"We're in our pjs…" Lottie said.

"So? I can put my coat on over them." He said.

"That actually sounds like fun, count me in!" Stephanie piped in.

"I'm game." Barbara said.

"Me too." Dick said right as Barbara spoke.

"Oh what the Hell, why not." Tim said.

"Oh fine." Lottie sighed.

"Can we go ahead and count Damian out?" Dick asked.

"Yes." Damian said heading out the door, his hood full of popcorn.

"Who was putting popcorn in his hood?" Dick asked once Damian was upstairs.

"That would be me." Cass said.

"Nice, poor little guy's gonna feel pretty silly when he gets in bed." Dick said smiling.

Lottie and Tim had to bite their fingers to keep from bursting out laughing at Dick, whose hood was overflowing with popcorn and candy.

"What? What is it? What-oh, wow guys…" Dick said feeling his hood. "Yeah I thought you two were seventeen, not seven." He said dumping the contents into his empty popcorn bucket.

"Oh shut up, more popcorn for you. I'm going to go get my coat and boots and go ahead to see if the pond has frozen thick enough for us to skate." Jason said standing and stretching.

"Ok, have fun." Lottie said, reaching to grab some popcorn out of Dick's popcorn bucket.

"What, oh no no no, if you wanted the popcorn, you shouldn't have put it in my hood, it's mine now." Dick said swatting her hand away.

Lottie frowned and stood up and exited the room. Several moments later she came back in with a letter in hand. She cleared her throat and read it aloud to the group,

"Dear Richard, Barbara, Jason, Stephanie, Cassandra, Timothy, and Charlotte,

I do not know which of you played this unimaginative prank, but I have taken the liberty of setting a prank for each of you when you go to bed tonight, or maybe not…

Sincerely,

Damian Wayne"

"Lil'shit…" Tim sneered. Everyone looked at Cass who was hastily walking out the room.

"Yo, everyone, the pond's good! C'mon!" Jason called from the foyer.

Everyone filed out the room and towards the coat closet to get their snow coats, pants, scarves, hats, gloves, boots, and skates and then ran outside. The air was crisp and chilly, the sky was clear and several twinkling stars could be seen. The snow was at least about two feet deep at this point, and the trees that surrounded Wayne Manor were piled with the white, powdery snow. But what was most beautiful was how the bright, full moon reflected off of the snow.

"Wow… this is magical!" Barbara said.

"Yeah, c'mon, let's go now!" Jason said running off toward the pond. The pond was about a quarter of a mile away from the manor, it was about 150 ft long at its longest point and perfect for skating or swimming depending on the weather.

"All we need now is some music and its like we're in a movie." Tim said.

"Ooh, I gotchu!" Lottie said pulling out her phone and a small wireless speaker from her pocket.

"Do you always carry a speaker with you?"Jason asked.

"Maybe I do," She said. She fiddled around for a moment with her phone, and then she turned on the speaker and paired it with the phone. "Here we go…" She pressed play on her phone and music began to play.

"What is this?" Cass asked.

"It's the Waltz of the Snowflakes, from The Nutcracker you uncultured swine." Tim said before Lottie could answer.

"Wow, okay then." Cass said looking kinda confused.

"It's good, let's just skate already!" Jason whined.

"Ok, I didn't realize our were so passionate about skating." Dick said as he laced his left skate up. Jason looked at him and said, "There's a lot about me you don't know Dicky-bird." And with that, he took off on to the ice. To everyone's amazement, he was very good. He seemed to glide effortlessly across the ice. Tim joined him, though he was not as skilled, nor was Stephanie or Barbara. Dick, Cass and Lottie were the only ones who could match him. Barbara could hardly stand on the ice and soon sat down on the side and pretended to give out scores. Soon Tim joined her and Stephanie as well.

"Why are you guys so good?" Stephanie asked.

"We just are." Jason replied. As soon as he said that, Dick's phone rang.

"It's Alfred, probably wondering if we're ok." He said as he answered it and put it on speaker.

" _Master Grayson, your father has just called me to request urgent back up. He said the situation has gone completely over his head, and he asked that you and the others come and assist him."_

"Ok we're coming Alfred." Dick answered. He exited the call and the group started back toward the house quickly. Once they were inside, Tim ran upstairs to wake Damian, only to find that he had already gone down to the batcave and was ready to go.

By the time they got to Gotham, about twenty minutes had passed. They arrived at the location where Bruce had told them to meet up, but he was no where to be seen.

"Shit…" Jason muttered, quietly pulling out a gun.

"I wish you would use that." Dick whispered to him.

"Same goes for your mouth." Jason retorted.

"Shh…" Tim said as he moved forward a few feet. He reached down and picked something up in the snow.

"What is it?" Cass asked quietly.

"It's a poker chip, huh, that's weird." He responded. He then twitched his nose and looked up with an expression of shock.

"MOVE!" He shouted. As he spoke, cans of smoke were hurled at each of their heads. It was nearly impossible to see anything. Lottie looked around frantically, but she just heard the sounds of grunting, occasional gunfire from Jason and the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow. Then she heard someone shout,

"Yooohooo! Up here!" came a shrill voice.

They all looked up to see a very pale woman in a crop top, blue and red booty shorts and fishnets wielding a baseball bat, standing on the rail of a fire escape. She hopped off the rail, and stepped onto the icy ladder which slid down with her on it.

"Hey look! It's the Joker's chew toy, how's life with an abusive psychopath Harley?" Jason said.

Harley glared at him and raised her bat expecting him to flinch, yet he did no such thing.

"Boo you're no fun." She said in a whiny tone.

"Your boyfriend literally killed me with a crowbar, your little bat does nothing." He replied drily.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, now but this fine, hunky specimen…" she said whilst caressing Dick's chest. "Oh Mista J is dying to get to play with you, and well, I wouldn't mind taking a spin either." She said with a laugh.

"As tempting as that sounds, I'll pass." Dick said brushing her off of him.

"How are you not freezing to death, then again I suppose being beaten on a regular basis will 'toughen' you up." Jason smirked.

"Why don't you go shove that red helmet of yours up your ass." She retorted.

"Enough talk Harley, where's Batman?" Damian said.

"Pipe down pip-squeak, Batsy's fine, relatively speaking considering he's a grown man that parades around in a Halloween costume. He's probably busy with a meager street gang as we speak." She said with a sly grin.

"Wait, what?" Stephanie asked.

"Oh yeah! Mista J staged this whole thing! That wasn't ya butler calling ya morons!" She said with a laugh.

"Now now Harley, don't be so critical of the children." Came a calm yet unnerving voice. A tall, pale man with green hair in a pinstripe purple suite and a red mouth emerged from the shadows.

"Well if it isn't the Batty Bunch." Said the Joker.

"Oh wonderful." Sighed Tim.

"Oh come now, this is wonderful! I haven't had guest in such a long time, my hosting skills might be a bit rusty, but I'm sure it won't matter." He said with a spine-tingling cackle as Harley threw a knockout gas bomb into the group. The next thing Lottie knew, she was lying on a cold floor in nothing but her undergarments. She opened her eyes to see that she was in a small room with an open door in front of her. It was dark, with only a few flickering lights to illuminate the area. From what she could see, she appeared to be in what looked like an abandoned hospital. She tried to look out the windows, but they were boarded up, and it was too dark anyway to make anything out. Next to her was a white dress laying on a chair. Without thinking, she slipped the dress over her head. It was fitted, long and flowing. Inside, she couldn't deny that she thought it was pretty. Somewhere in the building, she heard what sounded like a faint scream. At the threshold of the open door was a note,

Find It

She obeyed. She stepped outside the room and gazed down a long, dark hallway with the same flickering lights. It was very cold, probably due to the fact that the building had not had an operating heating system in years. A light draft occasionally swept through, though Lottie could not identify the source. After walking in the silence for about three minutes, she was startled by the sound of very eerie music that had come on over the intercom. A prominent chill went up her spine. Again, roughly five minutes later, she heard the scream, still very distant. A few feet ahead of her was another note,

Goodbye

As she read the word, she heard a rustling noise behind her. She dropped the note and looked, but nothing was there. Her heart began to beat faster. Just then, she heard another noise behind her, she turned around, again it was nothing. She began to run down the hallway, all the while, the noises grew louder. She reached a turn in the hallway, but when she did, she stopped dead in her tracks. There before her, was a man in a suit, Lottie tried to make out his face, but it was too dark. He began to stagger towards her, at that point the noises sounded like they were right behind her, next to her, everywhere. Not knowing what else to do, Lottie sunk to the floor and began to cry. It was then she heard a voice,

"Charlotte? Is that you?"

Just like that, the noises stopped. Lottie looked up to see that the man that she had seen was none other than Dick Grayson.

"Please answer, I can't see anything." He said.

Never before had Lottie seen her adopted big brother so frightened. He was stumbling about with his hands outstretched. His eyes where open, but he could not see.

"I'm right here." She said drying her eyes.

She stood up and reached for his hand. When she grabbed it, he blinked and then looked at her.

"Oh, I can safely say that I have never been more happy to see your face!" He said beginning to tear up.

"What did he do to you?" Lottie asked quietly.

"I woke up practically naked with this suit next to me. When I began to walk down the hallway, all of a sudden, I couldn't see anymore. I began to stumble down the hallway trying to find someone. What about you?" He asked.

"Pretty similar, except I started to hear noises that began to get louder." She replied.

"I wonder where the others are?" He said wiping his eyes.

"I have no clue, they're probably somewhere in here, I hope so at least." Lottie answered. "Come on, lets start looking."

The two set off down the hallway, the eerie music continued to play around them, occasionally sending chills up their spines. The floor felt exceptionally cold beneath their bare feet.

"I wonder what time it is now?" Lottie said with a yawn.

"Probably around midnight is my guess." Dick answered.

"I swear this is like something out of my nightmares." Lottie noted as they walked past another dark corridor.

"What would you say is the most common theme on your nightmares?" He asked.

"Probably helplessness, or loneliness, just a void. That's probably why I'm scared of ocean depths and drowning. Staring down into an endless, dark abyss and being unable to do anything."

"That's certainly heavy."

"Tell me about it. What about you?"

"I'd say becoming a monster."

"Really?" Lottie said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

"I know it sounds dramatic…"

"No not at all."

"…but being in Batman's shadow for so many years, seeing the impact he's had on people, I don't want that. Obviously I have the highest respect for him, but I could never do what he does. I guess I'm afraid of going to far." Dick finished.

"You know I just realized what's going on, that the Joker's subjecting us to our fears." Lottie said. "Stripping us down to basically nothing, disorientating us, then leaving us to fight our way out."

"The only way he could really do that is with Scarecrow's fear toxin though, and even still, that has different effects."

"But a modified version, better augmented to reality, could produce the desired impact."

Just then, they heard the scream again. This time it was very close, it seemed to be coming from down the pitch black corridor they were walking past.

"That does not sound pleasant." Dick whispered.

They began to carefully make their way down the hall to see what was the source of the screaming. At the end was the door to a room, Dick carefully opened it to reveal Jason Todd sitting in front of a television that was playing a looping video of a woman crying and popping pills then screaming out and falling down dead. Jason appeared to be fixed to the screen, tears streaming down his face.

"Jason?" Lottie whispered.

No response.

Dick walked over to the television and turned it off, leaving the room pitch black. Lottie gently placed her hands on Jason's shoulders.

"Jason?" She asked again.

"That was my mother." Jason said with a broken voice.

"We're right here bud, come on." Dick said.

They carefully stumbled out of the room and back into to lighted area. There, they could see that Jason was also in a black suit.

"Thank you." He said quietly.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Dick said.

"Good." Jason said, wiping his eyes and pulling himself together.

"Jason? Lottie? Dick? That you?" Came a female voice from down the hall.

Barbara and Tim came running towards them. Both dressed in white and black respectively.

"Are you guys okay?" She asked.

"We are now I guess. I'm assuming neither of you has seen Cass, Stephanie or Damian." Jason inquired.

"Unfortunately no." Tim said while trying to catch his breath.

"God, I just want to go home." Barbara said.

"Just three more." Lottie said.

"Let's keep on going then." Dick said.

They reached a door that led to a stairwell and made the decision to search the next floor up. When they got to the next floor, they immediately heard the sound of laughter from a few rooms down.

"Okay, that sounds completely terrifying." Said Tim.

"Guys? Are you there?"

"Stephanie! Cass! Oh God that means, Damian." Barbara said.

"What on earth is that little stinker afraid of?" Jason snorted.

"Is it possible he's afraid of happiness, that would explain the laughter." Cass said trying to hide a smile.

"No, I think I know what it is." Dick said, opening the door.

There, inside, was Damian crouched in a corner. In front of him was a female humanoid robot. The robot seemed to be cackling at Damian. Dick walked up and turned it around, it was Talia Al Ghul, Damian's mother. Dick wasted no time ripping the head off, thus silencing to laughter. He walked over to Damian and picked him up. Everyone stood in utter amazement, Damian never showed any weaknesses or vulnerability, for him to allow Dick to coddle him like this was shocking to them.

"Let's get out of this Hell hole." Dick said walking out of the room.

They went back down the stairwell and reached the ground floor, and when they did, at the front entrance was none other than Batman along with Catwoman who had the Joker tied up in her bullwhip.

"See, they're fine, nothing to worry about Batsy." The Joker said in a strained voice. "Ow! Let up on the kinks Pussy-cat, will ya?"

"Say please." She said in a smooth voice.

"Please?" Joker asked.

"No!" Selina responded, tightening her hold.

"Are you all alright?" Batman asked.

"Yeah, we're fine." Dick said.

"Good, we've called the GCPD, they should be on their way."

" _My guess says thirty minutes with our current squad cars."_ Barbara said under her breath.

"Wait." Damian said as he hopped down from Dick's arms and walked up to the Joker. "I'd like a few moments with him."

"Yeah, count me in on that as well." Jason added.

Batman and Catwoman looked at each other, the back at the group.

"Very well, just remember the one rule." Batman said with a slight smirk.

"Come on big boy, you're gonna have some fun." Catwoman said as she dragged the Joker into a nearby room, followed by Damian and Jason. She walked out a few moments later and said,

"They're going to be a while. What did the psychopath do to you all?"

"Submitted us to our worst fears, I think Scarecrow might be involved somehow." Lottie said.

"I was thinking the same thing," Tim added. "The Joker knocked us out with a gas, but I think it may have included an altered version of the fear toxin as well."

Just then, a loud yell was heard from the room Jason and Damian were in.

"I think that's good." Batman said walking into the room. They walked back out, Batman dragging the Joker by his jacket and the two boys following behind, looking very pleased with themselves. The GCPD arrived roughly ten minutes later and took the Joker to be put in Arkham, and Catwoman said her goodbyes and was off leaving the group to themselves.

"Lets go get our suits and then head back home." Dick said. "What time is it even?"

"1:37 it's Christmas Eve." Batman said. "I'll meet you all back at the Cave, no more trouble please."

He hopped in the Batmobile and drove off.

"Yeah please no more trouble, I'm about to fall asleep where I stand, I'm so tired." Tim said with a yawn.

They made their way around the building and collected their belongings and finally went home. When they got back, it seemed that they had just enough strength to climb the steps, open the doors to their rooms, put their pajamas on, and land in their beds before falling fast asleep.

The first person to wake up that morning was Jason. He looked at him alarm clock, it read 10:06. He sighed, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned. Outside there was still a thick blanket of snow. He trudged downstairs to the kitchen where Alfred was waiting next to a large platter of eggnog pancakes.

"Hooo boy!" He said with a big grin.

"Indeed, Merry Christmas Eve Master Todd." Alfred said.

"Merry Christmas Eve to you too Alfie." Jason said grabbing a plate and serving himself five pancakes.

"Morning Jason." Came another voice.

Jason turned around to see Bruce entering the kitchen.

"Morning Dad, Merry Christmas Eve." Jason said, now drowning the pancakes in syrup.

"Merry Christmas Eve Master Wayne." Added Alfred.

"To you two as well. Hey Jason, here's an idea, how about you let your siblings know that breakfast is ready before you eat it all." Bruce said, serving himself two pancakes as Jason was already stuffing his face.

"Fine." Said Jason, cheeks full and pancake crumbs falling out of his mouth. He ran upstairs and shouted,

"Twas the morning before Christmas and all through the house NO ONE WAS AWAKE TO ENJOY THE PANCAKE BREAKFAST ALFRED MADE EXCEPT JASON SO HE ATE IT ALL HIMSELF THE END."

He marched back downstairs and resumed inhaling his food. A few minutes later the rest of the family began to drowsily come downstairs and sit down for breakfast.

"Since its Christmas Eve, you all know that the first ever Wayne Enterprises Christmas Eve Charity Ball is tonight, so naturally I expect you all to be on your best behavior, Damian, please make an effort to be civil and polite, Jason, you as well." Bruce said.

"Yes Father." Damian said begrudgingly.

"Sure thing Dad." Jason added.

"Ooh? You know what else happens today?" Stephanie piped up.

"Nothing at all!" Dick said quickly.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot." Tim said, looking at Dick.

"No you did forget!" Dick said again.

"If Jason does it with you will you do it?" Lottie said laughing.

"Hey don't drag me into this, I already made the agreement to be civil and polite at Dad's hoighty-toighty party tonight, I'm not also agreeing to doing Elvis karaoke with Dick, especially after last year." Jason said firmly.

"What happened last year?" Barbara asked.

"Oh God this isn't happening to me right now." Dick said putting his face in his hands.

"You know how he does the performance in the dining room after we eat lunch, last year lunch lasted a little longer than it normally does, and Alfred was already bringing in the food from the catering company for dinner and placing it on the dinner cart. Well the 'Boy Wonder' here was crooning out 'Blue Christmas' when he tripped on the hem of his bedazzled bell-bottoms and tried to grab on to the cart to catch himself but instead he pulled the cart over with him, catapulting everything on the cart into the air and on to the floor. Fortunately, the only things on the cart at that point were stuffing, grilled asparagus and dinner rolls, but it still made a mess." Cass said while laughing.

"And that's why I'm not doing it again." Dick said.

"And that's why I'm not joining in." Jason said.

"I'll pay you both $1,000 each to do it." Bruce said to everyone's amazement.

"Come on Dicky those songs aren't gonna learn themselves." Jason said slamming his fist down on the table, grabbing Dick and heading upstairs.

"Is that really wise Master Wayne?" Alfred asked.

"We'll do it in the theatre this time." Bruce said.

"I am so gonna be live streaming this." Tim said with a smile.

Just then, the doorbell rang, Alfred went to go answer it and came back with two red headed young men.

"Hello Roy, Wally, what brings you guys here?" Bruce asked.

"We had plans with Jason to go ambush caroling." Wally responded.

"It's so nice to see the youth of today spreading Christmas cheer." Alfred said.

"What in the world is 'ambush caroling'?" Bruce asked looking very confused.

"So we hide in alley ways and when someone walks past, we jump out and start singing carols! We used to throw snow at them as well, but last year we accidentally threw yellow snow at this old black lady and she proceeded to give us the ass whooping of a lifetime." Roy replied.

"Yeah, my right butt cheek is still tender from that." Wally added, rubbing his butt.

"As wonderful as that sounds, Jason's going to have to pass, he's joining Dick in his annual Christmas Eve Elvis performance." Bruce said with a chuckle.

"Say what? Umm, would it be to much to ask if we can witness such an important event?" Wally asked.

"No, not at all, I'm sure the boys would love to have you watch." Bruce responded.

"This is the best Christmas Eve ever!" Tim laughed.

"In fact, why don't we invite a few others as well, Kori, Zatanna, M'gan, Connor, Kara, Raven…"

"Can't do Raven, Christmas isn't her thing, plus Franz and Fredric don't like her." Lottie interrupted.

"Okay, Garth, Jaime, is that everyone? Oh and Artemis."

"I'll sent out 'e-vites' right away Sir." Alfred announced.

"They're gonnna hate you for this." Cass said.

"I'm paying them $1,000, they'll get over it." Bruce responded.

By the time each of the guest arrived, Dick and Jason were at last ready to come out.

They stepped on the little stage platform in the home theatre, oblivious to the crowd that awaited them. Both had the classic Elvis cape outfit on with gelled hair, although Jason's white streak in the front of his hairline somewhat ruined the authenticity. The moment they saw the crowd, Dick was about to turn around until Bruce waved two checks at them. Tim was sitting up front, streaming the whole thing on YouTube with the biggest smile Lottie had ever seen on him.

"I would just like say, that following this afternoon's performance, I will be sticking my head in the oven, should anyone need me." Dick announced.

"You guys look beautiful!" Roy shouted from the back of the room, causing Zatanna to giggle.

"Thank you, Thank you very much." Jason said in his best Elvis voice, prompting a loud whooping sound from Garth.

"A one, a two, a one, two, three, four…" Dick started.

The song was littered with laughter from the audience and the occasional waving of dollar bills, but to everyone's delight, there was no tripping this year. By the end, Lottie was laughing so hard she was crying.

"Thank you, and screw you all!" Jason said after they were through.

"Wait, I think its only fair, since we were subjected to such humiliation, that the ladies of the house should as well." Dick said.

"Hold up there Dicky-bird," Cass began to protest.

"No no no no, we live under a democracy so lets take a vote, those in favor?"

Everyone except the girls raised their hands.

"Those opposed?"

Cass, Stephanie, Lottie and Barbara all raised their hands.

"Suck it, majority wins, start singing girls." Jason said, hopping down from the stage.

"What are we gonna sing, we have nothing prepared." Stephanie said.

"And who's fault is that? As far as I'm concerned this is a brilliant idea" Dick responded.

"You don't have many of those now do you." Lottie retorted.

"Hey, not true." Dick protested.

"Hmm lets think, your long hair last year, that brief modeling thing you did, the water park incident, shall I go on?" Cass asked.

"Just sing!" Jason said throwing popcorn at them.

"We all know 'The Man With the Bag' right? The one Kay Starr sings?" Barbara asked.

They all nodded in agreement.

"Alfred we're doing ' _The Man With the Bag'_." She called out.

The music started playing and they started singing, fortunately, they were all decent singers and worked out the harmonies quickly enough. Their song was filled with hip swinging and sass, getting plenty of cat calls from the boys in the audience.

" _Better watch out."_ They finished with. The audience started cheering.

"I love you girls!" Wally screamed, throwing himself on the stage at their feet causing Stephanie to lose it and buckle over laughing.

"Alright," Bruce laughed "I hate to cut the fun, but we have an event here in a few hours that we need to get ready for, so thank you for coming and Merry Christmas!"

"I'm a changed man!" Wally shouted on the way out.

"Here you two go," Bruce said, handing them their checks. "Now we need to get ready, the event company will be here soon."

"Do we have to wear our tuxedos again?" Jason asked.

"Yes, you do, and that does not mean your tuxedo t-shirt." Bruce responded. "Barbara, I'm sure one of the girls will lend you one of their dresses to wear tonight."

"Yeah! Come upstairs and we'll get you situated." Stephanie said as she grabbed Barbara's hand and she and the other girls went upstairs.

"I have a dark blue dress that will look great on you." Lottie said when they were in the guest room Barbara was staying in.

"Oh yeah, that'll look really good, what shoe size are you?" Cass asked.

"Either a 7.5 or an 8." Barbara responded.

"Steph you're an 8 right?" Lottie said.

"Yeah, I have some silver shoes in mind." She responded.

They spent three hours trying on dresses, shoes, styling hair and doing makeup. The ball was supposed to start at 8:00, so by 7:30 the girls and boys were all ready. Barbara was, indeed, wearing the velvet navy blue column gown with silver heels, her dark red, wavy hair pinned up loosely; Cass was wearing a black satin high-low gown with red heels and her short black hair gelled back; Stephanie donned a red organza mermaid gown with green heels and her blonde hair curled and pinned back; and Lottie had on a mustard gold silk ball gown with black heels and her brunette hair twisted up. The boys came down wearing their tuxedos, each with a different colored bow tie: Dick's was dark blue, Jason's was (of course) red, Tim's was gold and Damian's was dark green. Jason also had on a Santa hat that Lottie knew Bruce would make him take off.

"Jason take the Santa hat off please." Bruce said coming down in his tuxedo. Jason quietly removed the hat from his head and tossed it aside.

"Dad is Diana going to be here?" Tim asked.

"Yes she is, do I look alright?" He asked.

"Ah, that explains it." Cass whispered.

"You look great Dad." Lottie said.

"Okay, like I said, best behavior, the board of directors and the mayor are going to be here, as well as Diana and Uncle Clark and Aunt Lois." Bruce said adjusting his bow tie in a mirror.

"Wooo, Uncle Clark!" Stephanie said.

"Wooo, Stephanie Brown!" came a voice from the front door.

Clark Kent walked in wearing a navy blue suit, a leather messenger bag over his shoulder.

They all ran up to greet him, even Damian.

"Do I not get any recognition?" Came another voice.

Lois Lane followed wearing a smart forest green blazer and pencil skirt.

They all expressed apologies and went to greet her as well.

"Why doesn't Uncle Clark have to wear a tux?" Jason asked.

"Because he and Aunt Lois are doing press coverage." Dick replied.

"Do we look up to par for your soirée?" Clark asked, pulling in Lois.

"You two look sufficient. Why is everyone so self conscious?" Damian said.

"I'll take that as a high compliment seeing as its coming from Damian." Clark said.

"The place looks amazing Bruce, you really outdid yourself this year." Lois said looking around at the garland and red bows that adorned the walls of the foyer. The 30 ft tree was covered in Italian glass ornaments and twinkling lights. The tables had beautiful centerpieces of cloved oranges, poinsettias, holly, and pine. The special Christmas pheasant china was brought out for its annual use, along with the fine crystal glasses.

"Thank you, they just finished putting them up." He said proudly.

"He's trying to impress Diana." Damian said cheekily. Clark and Lois laughed while Bruce turned slightly red and told Damian to go let out MacBeth who had been barking at the patio door for the past three minutes.

"He's hilarious." Dick said off to the side while the three talked and more people began to come in.

"You'd think he'd have a bit more confidence concerning her, I mean he's Batman." Barbara said quietly.

"Yeah but she's an Amazonian goddess." Jason responded.

"Now you all know it's not nice to talk about other people behind their backs." Came a quiet female voice from behind them, startling Jason.

"Oh god, Diana, you know its not nice to sneak up on people." He said clutching his heart.

Diana Prince stood behind their group, she was wearing a white organza blouse with a full length dark green, almost black, silk skirt and her thick, long, dark hair pulled up into a beautiful ponytail.

"You look incredible, Dad's gonna forget his entire vocabulary when he sees you." Lottie said.

"I'm hoping to surprise him, I called Alfred to let him know I'd be sneaking in the back entrance." She said with a smile. "I hope Lois and Clark won't give me away though."

"You know Uncle Clark can probably, most definitely hear this entire conversation." Dick said. They all looked over at Clark who looked back at them and mouthed,

"Oh yeah, most definitely." When Bruce wasn't looking.

They group had to hold in their giggles.

"I'm going to go over and say hi, wish me luck." She whispered as she tip toed over to Bruce. She got up behind him and said something, again startling him.

"Can they just get married already, she'd be an awesome mom." Cass said with a sigh. "Ooh watch Dad, first he's gonna run his fingers through his hair…"

He did.

"Okay, next he's gonna do this manly laugh."

They could hear Diana say something and then Bruce let out a loud, booming laugh.

"He's not even trying to be subtle." Tim said with a smile.

As soon as the majority of the guest arrived and were seated, Bruce stood at the top of the grand staircase landing and expressed his gratitude for their donations and how beneficial they will be to the Gotham Home for Children and how, being an orphan himself, he knows what it will mean to the children.

"And now, we have a special treat for everybody, the Home would like to thank us by singing some Christmas carols, so please give a warm round of applause for the Gotham Home for Children Choristers, directed by Susan Errols." He said stepping aside as several young children in choir uniforms and Santa hats made their way to the landing and began to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High".

"Aww, they're so sweet, lets hope Dad can resist the urge to adopt all of them." Lottie said.

They sang three more carols before receiving a standing ovation from the crowd as they left down the stairs.

"Were they not amazing! Let's have another round of applause for them!" Bruce said as he resumed his position atop the stairs. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, dinner! Tonight's dinner was catered by Gotham's very own Fox and Cygne, and if you have not heard of them allow me to give some background on their restaurant. Back in 1912, Englishman Peter Darton immigrated to France to marry Marion Delphine. There, the two of them opened up a small bistro called Renard et Cygne, which is French for fox and swan, the bistro combined classic English game with the culinary style of France. However, in 1915, the German army invaded and raided the village, killing many of the people in the process, including Marion. Realizing that there was nothing left for him in France, Peter emigrated to America, where he carried on his Marion's memory and legacy by opening The Fox and Cygne. He went on to re-marry, start a family, and live a successful life. Today, Peter's grandson Tyler owns the restaurant and we have him to thank for this delicious feast."

As he finished, several dozen waiters entered the hall with platters of sliced ham, turkey, venison, roasted vegetables, sautéed fruits, fresh breads, and more.

"This is what you came for…" Jason sang under his breath.

"Thank goodness, I'm starving!" Tim said as he placed his napkin on his lap and a waiter came around with a platter of turkey.

"Would any of you care for some smoked turkey?" He asked.

"Yes please." Damian and Tim said.

Once all the waiters had gone around and offered their food, Bruce announced that the Gotham City Jazz Band would be serenading them tonight, and that the dance floor was now open. He then proceeded to ask Diana to dance as the Jazz Band began to play, prompting many others to join in.

"This is what life should be, no deadly fights, no civilian endangerment, no psychopaths, just happiness." Dick said with a smile as he watched Bruce and Diana dance.

"Who is that?" Stephanie asked, motioning over to a girl in her late teens, she had straight blonde hair (obviously dyed, as her darker roots were showing) and was wearing a tight, red velvet, body-con dress.

"Oh God no." Lottie sighed.

"Ooooh do I detect resentment?" Jason asked.

"No you detect loathing. That's Ariana Presbelle, she's the daughter of City Councilman _and_ "socialite" Gerard Presbelle, she was in my ballet class. That bitch thinks she is the most important person in the world, her hobbies include being condescending, being a whore, being entitled, and not realizing she is not very smart, skilled or pretty. When I left ballet, she came up to me and said, "It's okay sweetie, not everyone's cut out for dancing, you just don't have the strength, skill or grace, but it doesn't matter, you can do lots of things just by having a good personality." She said this to me, to my face, I wanted to maim her." Lottie said gritting her teeth.

"Imma ask her to dance." Jason said standing up and placing his napkin in his chair.

"Wait what? You just heard Lottie explain how awful she is." Cass said in amazement.

"She sounds like Jason's type." Damian said with a smirk.

"Not to worry, I have a plan that I'm sure all of you will approve of, listen with this." Jason said, handing Tim an earpiece as he walked over to Ariana.

" _Hello, would you care to dance?"_ He asked. The group leaned in closer to earpiece to get a better listen.

" _Oh, teehee, I'd love to. My you are muscular."_ She said squeezing Jason's bicep as he led her to the dance floor.

"Eugh." Barbara said in disgust.

" _Does an angel like you come with a name?"_ Jason asked smoothly.

" _Ariana, it means 'Very Holy' how about you?"_ She crooned.

" _Jason, it means 'Healer'."_ He replied.

" _So tell me Jason, like, what brought you here tonight?"_

" _Well, my dad's the owner of this little business, you probably haven't heard of it—"_

" _Oh, little business, I probably haven't. Well my father is Councilman Presbelle, you know like, owner of Presbelle Furniture."_

"Oh, that's where I've heard that name, I knew it sounded familiar." Tim said.

" _So, Jason, tell me about yourself."_

" _You first."_

" _Okay, I was, like, born in Monaco, while my parents were on vacation. Monaco is, like, this little country on the Mediterranean. My nanny said that from an early age I showed signs of, like, giftedness. I could speak French, like, fluently by the time I was 12. 'Je tres intelligente' tee-hee that means I am very intelligent in French. When I was, like, 15, I already had an IQ of, like, 90; when I was, like, 16, I was named Miss Teen Gotham; and I was offered a modeling job, like, last month for Gotham Seventeen. Hashtag Blessed am I right? Now your turn!"_

" _Well…"_

"Oh this is gonna be hilarious." Cass said.

" _I was conceived in an alleyway by accident, my birth mother suffered from depression and drug addiction and my father was a criminal. He actually started training me to steal as well. I got pretty good at it, still am in fact. Mom died from a supposed overdose and dad died in prison. My adopted dad found me trying to steal the wheels off of his car but he took pity on me and adopted me. He sent me to Ma Gunn's Home for Wayward Boys, but he later found out that was a gateway to child crime, so I pushed Ma Gunn out a window—"_

" _Wait what?! You, like, killed someone?!"_

" _Yeah but she deserved it."_

" _OMG! Like, how did they even let you in this event, did you, like, steal an invitation?"_

" _Everything alright here?"_ Came Bruce's voice.

At this point, the entire group had to bite their fingers to keep from laughing.

" _Ah Mr. Wayne, this young man has trespassed on your property, I suggest you have him removed and locked up."_ She said in a commanding tone.

" _Jason, what is going on?"_ Bruce asked.

" _Just having some fun Dad."_ Jason replied.

" _Dad?! What? Bruce Wayne is your father?"_

" _Yeah, like I said, he runs a little business. Oh and Charlotte says hi."_

Ariana looked over at the table and Lottie looked up and flipped her off, at that point, the group lost it and burst out laughing. Even Damian was chuckling.

" _Vas te faire enculer, putain de toi."_ Jason said to her.

" _Huh?"_

" _Fuck you, you whore"_

Ariana huffed and walked away.

"Dad's gonna kill us." Dick said laughing.

Bruce and Jason walked over to the table.

"Did you guys have your fun?" Bruce asked sternly.

"Sorry Dad, she deserved it, she was nasty to Charlotte, and no harm was done." Stephanie said.

"I swear though, if she had said 'like' out of proper context one more time, I was going to rip my ears off." Jason said in a very irritated tone.

"Now that you have gotten that out of your collective system, please try to act civil." Bruce said with a sigh.

"Yes sir." They all said.

"It's a shame that people like that haven't died out yet." Dick said.

"I think they are more plentiful than one would assume." Damian added.

"Hey Steph, wanna dance?" Tim asked, holding his hand out to Stephanie who accepted.

"Oh, wait hold on, dessert has arrived." He said sitting back down.

"Boy has his priorities straight." Cass said with a laugh.

As before, the waiters entered, carrying apple, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate, pear, chocolate and peanut butter fudge, shortbread, brownies, Christmas pudding, and ice creams.

"It's times like these when I know that the Good Lord is looking out for us." Jason said as the apple pie came around to them first.

The ball lasted until Midnight. Before 12:00, Bruce invited Diana, Clark, Lois, Alfred and the kids up to the landing, along with Franz, Fredric, MacBeth and Titus as well.

"There is no one I'd rather celebrate Christmas with." Bruce said.

When the clock struck twelve, he began to sing "O Holy Night", joined by his family and soon by the rest of the guests. The lights were dimmed, allowing the candles that had been lit on the tree and on the tables to glow. It was one of the most beautiful sights Lottie had ever seen.

When they had finished, Bruce once again expressed his thanks, reminded everyone to check that they had all of their belongings, to collect their gift basket on the way out and to travel safely on their way home.

"Good night all, Merry Christmas." Clark said as he and Lois left.

"Merry Christmas Bruce." Diana said as she walked up behind him with her coat and gloves in her arms. As he turned his head, she pulled out a sprig of mistletoe from under her coat, held it above their heads and gave him a kiss, which he reciprocated.

"Awww" The girls said.

"Night everyone!" Dick said marching up the stairs with Barbara, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

"I'm sure they're not gonna do the sex." Jason said sleepily as he began his way up as well. "I'm sure I'm not gonna have to put two pillows over my ears tonight. Come on MacBeth, you're gonna have to suffer with me." MacBeth followed him up the stairs, his tail wagging happily.

"Good night." Damian said walking up with Titus by his side.

"I'm getting tired as well, Night." Lottie said picking up Franz. "Cass, Stephanie, or Tim, if one of you could grab Fredric before you go to bed and just let him sleep in your room that'd be swell."

She walked upstairs and into her room. In the corner of her room was a six ft tall Douglas Fir that was decorated according to the color scheme of the room and the only source of light at the moment. She placed Franz on the couch and walked over to her bathroom door which was next to her dresser, and opposite the closet which was next to her bed. The marble floor was freezing against her sore, bare feet. She took off her makeup, let her hair out and brushed her teeth. She then walked over to her closet, it was a modest sized walk-in, no frills, slipped out of her dress, hung it up, ran back out into the room to grab her heels, which she had kicked off as soon as she walked through the door, and ran back in the closet to place them in their little cubby, grabbed her favorite flannel pajamas and put them on. She closed the closet door and went over to her bed, she grabbed the three shams, placed them on the bench at the foot of the bed and then put the other two pillows on the couch, grabbed Franz, put him on the bed, went over to the tree, turned it off and then finally hopped in bed. Before she fell asleep, she and the rest of the house heard Jason yell,

"GOOD GOD WILL YOU TWO GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY!" At Dick and Barbara. Lottie laughed to herself and fell fast asleep.

"It's a marshmallow world in the winter!" Lottie awoke to hear Jason and Cass running through the halls, singing songs at the top of their lungs. She rubbed her eyes, stretched and yawned before hobbling out of bed. Franz at her feet. She looked at her tree, six little presents were under it. One from each sibling, they did this every year, and on Christmas Eve, after all had gone to bed, Alfred placed the proper gifts under their proper trees. But downstairs was the jack pot.

They all flew downstairs as fast as they could. Not under the tree in the entrance, but under the smaller family one in the den, were a dozen beautifully wrapped gifts. When they were all downstairs in the den, Alfred brought out homemade hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows, followed by cranberry orange scones and apple cranberry oatmeal bake.

"Thank you Alfred." Bruce said as he sat down in his huge, leather chair.

On an old gramophone, a Frank Sinatra record was playing, a roaring fire had been lit in the fireplace, and the window drapes were drawn back to shown the lightly falling snow.

"All right, Damian gets to go first since he's the youngest." Bruce said. "Oh Alfred, join us please."

"Very well Master Wayne." Alfred said sitting down.

Damian reached far under the tree and pulled out a small box.

"To Damian from Kori." He read.

He opened it up and held up two titanium-oxide coated throwing stars.

"Very nice, I shall send her a thank you letter." He said placing them back in the box.

After Damian, the floodgates opened and they all began unwrapping gifts. Notable presents included a cashmere turtleneck for Dick, a huge Lush gift box for Stephanie, a Tiffany watch for Lottie, a slab of rocky road chocolate for Jason, a collector's edition Sherlock Holmes novel for Tim, a pet hamster for Cass (which she named HRH Carlton Theodesius Shakespeare the Cute or Nibbles to his friends), the Game of Thrones box set with 3+ hours of extras for Barbara, a paid for vacation in Paris for Bruce and Diana, and a roomba for Alfred.

"This has been amazing!" Tim said with a smile as he started making snow angels in the crumpled up wrapping paper.

"What are we going to do now?" Cass asked, holding Nibbles in her hands.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I promised Roy and Wally I'd go ambush caroling today since I couldn't yesterday, any of you are welcome to come." Jason said.

"I'm coming, Wally's my best friend." Dick said.

"I'll go, I have nothing else to do." Lottie said.

"Anyone else?" Jason asked.

Everyone else shook their heads.

"Alright so its Dick, Lottie and me." He said heading upstairs.

Lottie went up to her room to change into some warm clothes. Her wool sweater, jeans, LL Bean boots, with a tartan cashmere pashmina, Barbour coat, beret and gloves. As any Wayne child did, she also carried a few personalized batarangs (she called them Birdies) in her coat as well. She met Dick and Jason in the foyer, they put their suits in secret compartments under the back seats (just in case) and they hopped in Bruce's Mercedes that he let them borrow and drove off towards Gotham.

"Where are we meeting them?" Dick asked Jason, who was driving.

"In front of the Starbucks on Westmill. Wally was getting hungry so they popped in there to get something to eat." Jason responded.

"How do you not get arrested for this?" Lottie asked.

"Gordon's fine with it, as long as we don't hurt the person." Jason said.

As they approached the outskirts of the city, the traffic started to become more congested.

"What's going on here? It's Christmas, why have all the idiots decided to try to drive today?" Jason moaned. He gave the horn a few honks to try and get moving but nothing worked.

"I'll call Wally and see if they know what's up." Dick said pulling out his phone.

"Wally? Hey, do either of you have any clue why the traffic on 4th is so bad?"

" _Nope, haven't a clue."_

"Could you please at least look out, you're literally at the intersection, just step out and look."

" _Fine… Oh Betty Ford its chilly! Okay, oh no… Dick, it looks like a hostage situation at City Hall, cop cars have the perimeter sealed off to traffic. Oh I don't wanna do this now, its cold. You three better get over there, Roy and I will meet you. Why can criminals take a break…"_ Wally hung up, still grumbling.

"Well, time to go to work." Jason said pulling the car off into a dark, abandoned, sheltered alley.

Lottie pulled up the back seats to get the suits out and handed them to her brothers. Jason pressed a button that darkened the windows and raised a screen, separating the front and back seats. They took roughly three minutes to change before they got out, checking to see that no one was watching. As usual, Nightwing's weapons of choice were his Eskrima sticks, Red Hood had his beloved hand guns, and Black Bird had her Birdies.

"C'mon, we've lost time." Black Bird said beginning to scale a fire escape staircase to get to the rooftops. Even in the insulated suit, she was still chilly, so she wasted no time in moving.

"Careful, its really icy." Red Hood said following.

They got to the top and began parkouring their way over to the block City Hall was on.

"Ahoy there." Came Arsenal's gruff voice.

"What's the situation?" Nightwing asked.

"It appears to just be a regular group of thugs, but there's quite a few of them. I counted twelve but there may be more, they've got about fifty people in there, don't know what they are demanding or why though." Kid-Flash said.

They re-established the psychic com link Miss Martian had previously established in them, and quickly did a test.

"Well let's not waste another moment," Red Hood said, firing a grappling gun at the City Hall exterior and swinging down to the alley next to it. Nightwing followed, gliding down. Arsenal shot a line across to the rooftop next to City Hall and entered from behind. Kid-Flash ran down the building and entered when one of the thugs opened the door to peak outside. Black Bird opened her wings and soared across to the roof. She opened a maintenance door and ran down the stairs, she could hear people crying out and calling for help on the fourth floor. She opened the door and immediately closed it. Two of the thugs saw her and began shooting at the door as they walked towards it.

"I've got some hostages on the fourth floor and two thugs coming towards me in the maintenance stairwell." She thought.

"I'll find the hostages, can you handle the thugs?" Arsenal replied.

"Yep."

She stood against the wall of the doorway and waited for the door to open. When it did, she swung her arm out and hit the groin of the first thug, causing him to double down, she then kicked his head, knocking him out. The second thug had backed up and was calling out for another thug called Phil. Black Bird looked out the door to see the thug loading his gun very clumsily.

"Please, at least try to show some confidence. I'll feel bad if you're cowering." She said.

"Here's your confidence." Came another voice. Black Bird could feel the end of a gun being jammed into her back.

"There we go!" She said.

She dropped to the ground, swung her leg out, knocking the thug off his feet. He grabbed her foot and tried to pull her towards him, but she threw a birdie at his hand causing him to recoil. She hit him in the head, knocking him out. She looked over at the thug that had been trying to load his gun, he was now pointing it at her.

"Now stand up slowly, hands in the air, walk towards me slow, no funny business you hear me?" He said in a very shaky voice. He looked quite young, he had blue eyes, thick, wavy brown hair and looked to be about Red Hood's height.

"What's your name?" Black Bird asked cautiously.

"George." He said in the same tone.

"How old are you George?" She asked.

"I'm old enough to not be afraid to shoot someone." He responded.

"Alright then… shoot me." She said.

"What?"

"You heard me, shoot."

George began to raise the gun, but ended up being unable to do so. He dropped the gun and fell to his knees.

"I can't…"

"You have you're whole life ahead of you, do something that you'll be proud of. Oh, but first, turn yourself in, it'll be quick, I'd say a month at most."

"Black Bird, where are you? We need you down in the lobby." Came Nightwing's voice.

"Ummm, alright then, uh, bye I guess?"

She took off down the hallway feeling extremely awkward and found Arsenal leading a group of people down the stairs.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, that poor guy, he'll be alright though, I hope." She said.

"Oh, um, alright then." He said, firing a series of arrows at some guys coming towards them.

Nightwing was with Kid-Flash in the lobby, taking down the thugs. Nightwing jumped in the air, flipped and did a split mid jump, knocking out two thugs before landing.

"I honestly think he just does stuff like that just to show off." Black Bird said.

"Yeah, he probably does." Arsenal said.

They got to the bottom of the stairs and Arsenal led the people out the back. A thug came up behind Black Bird and put her in a choke hold. She flung her lower body up in the air and over behind the thug's head, causing him to fall on his back. She then ran over to help Nightwing, at this point, only three thugs were left and most of the hostages were out.

"Lady's first." Nightwing said.

"Thank you my good sir." Black Bird responded, throwing a birdie at one as he ran at her.

"Your turn."

Nightwing ran up to a thug as he tried to do the same and punched him in the jaw.

"My turn." Came Red Hood's voice. He fired a shot at the last thug who then dropped.

"Dude?! What the fuck?" Nightwing asked.

"It's a rubber bullet, he'll be fine." He responded. "Anyway we're done here. KF what's the total for thuggies?"

"Twenty." Kid-Flash said coming to a stop.

"Holy crap twenty? Really?" Arsenal asked.

"Yep, and one of them's on the fourth floor having an existential crisis." He replied.

"Oh, was that the guy you were thinking about Black Bird?" Arsenal said in a mocking tone.

"You know you're certainly putting the 'arse' in 'Arsenal' right now." She said.

"Okay whatever, lets get going now." Arsenal said walking back upstairs to the roof.

When they were all back in civilian clothing and sitting in Starbucks, Roy resumed his questioning.

"What happened?"

"He was gonna try and shoot me," Lottie said.

"Awww, how romantic." Jason said.

"But couldn't."

"Ew what a wuss." Jason continued.

"Would you rather he had shot me?" Lottie asked.

"No but if anyone's gonna date my little sister, they need to show some balls."

"I'm not gonna date him! I don't even know him, or plan to get to know him!"

"Alright fine, calm down." Jason said taking a sip of coffee.

"Guys its 1:18 and we have done zero ambush caroling, lets get going." Wally said impatiently. They followed him out to an alley and waited for the first person to walk past.

"Okay, first we're singing 'Jingle Bells' alright, ooh someone's coming." Wally whispered.

A figure approached the alley, and as they did, they all jumped out.

"JINGLE—AHH!"

A large, blunt force had struck both Lottie and Roy, knocking them to the ground.

"Hey Hal, sorry we scared you." Lottie said getting up off the ground and rubbing her face.

"Oh I'm sorry I smacked you, what are you doing?" Hal Jordan asked, helping Roy up.

"We are ambush caroling." Wally announced.

"Sounds like fun, count me in." Hal said, much to the surprise or everyone.

"Okay sure!" Wally continued.

Having Hal join the group made for some memorable moments, as his height, the icy ground and the forces of gravity often worked against him. They spent the next 3 hours scaring innocent passerbys before being asked to stop by the police due to the many occasions he'd trip and fall in front of the person, causing them to fall.

"You must have fallen a total of at least six times." Jason said laughing.

"I counted eight." Dick said.

"Alright it's hilarious haha, you kids have a good Christmas, I need to go back to my place and ice my ass." Hal said rubbing his rear.

"Haven't you already done that?" Roy asked.

"Oh-ho you are funny." He said with a cheeky sneer.

"Merry Christmas Hal, hope your butt feels better!" Lottie called out as he walked off. Hal didn't turn around but gave a thumbs up to the group to respond.

"Let's go home before traffic gets bad." Jason said rummaging his pockets for the keys.

"Yeah, I'm ready to gain ten pounds tonight at Boston Market." Roy said.

"Artemis and I are having dinner together tonight, so I should probably go as well." Wally said.

They all said their goodbyes before heading their separate ways. By the time Jason, Dick and Lottie got back to the car, traffic was beginning to slow down.

"Let's go go go, I am not spending Christmas in traffic." Jason said ushering his brother and sister into the car. Nevertheless, it took them an hour to get home.

"Well look who's back." Bruce said upon the trio's rentry.

"Make jokes later Dad, I gotta shit so badly I may die…again…" Jason said as he speed-hobbled to the bathroom.

"How was it?" Bruce asked.

"Oh, fun, nothing extravagant." Lottie said, choosing to leave out the part with the action.

"Yeah, criminals just aren't that fun anymore." He said with a wink as he walked into the kitchen.

"Where is everyone else?" Dick asked.

"In the theatre watching Game of Thrones." He responded, motioning in the general direction of the theatre as he took a bite out of a cookie. They walked in and joined their siblings.

"What season is this?" Dick asked as he sat down next to Barbara.

"We're still on one." She said, not taking her eyes off of the screen.

An hour went by, and Jason had not exited the bathroom.

"D'you think he's alright?" Cass asked.

"If he's not back in 45 minutes we'll send in a search team." Tim said.

Thirty minutes later, Jason walked in the room, paused the show, turned on the lights and said,

"I am happy to report that after an hour and a half in labor, I have given birth to a healthy shit. I named it Damian and if you want to see it, too bad I already flushed it."

He then proceeded to turn the lights back off, resume the show, and exit the room leaving everyone at a loss for words.

Christmas Day dinner was always a very casual event at the Wayne household. Usually served in the living room or theatre, it was a relaxing change from the previous night. Tonight, it was served in the theatre, as no one wanted to stop watching. It was midnight when they had finally decided to resume watching the next day, and everyone was exhausted. Damian and Lottie had fallen asleep in their beanbags, and had to be woken up. They all trudged upstairs and collapsed in their beds asleep.

To be continued...


End file.
